[0:11] Mary Fasbender (Mayor): Excuse me. Welcome everyone. Let the role reflect that the council members are present and a quorum has been established. Tonight with us we have Helen Strike, who is the president of the Regina Hospital here in Hastings, and Helen is going to give us an update. Welcome, Helen. [0:26] Helen Strike: Thank you very much, and thank you everyone for having me tonight. It's quite something because I think this is actually the first time that I've been here in person and I'm grateful that you're all here too. After the year we've had, I wanted to come and thank all of you and the residents of Hastings and Prescott and Cottage Grove for all the support that the hospital's received in our clinic and and the Benedictine Regina senior living for this past year and a half because it's been a heck of a year, hasn't it? And and we've been so grateful to be able to provide care for for our community, so I appreciate that. I'm willing to take questions about anything so you might have a few COVID questions or other things as well. My name—so I have been the president at Regina and also River Falls hospital in Wisconsin for the last two years and I might have given it away already that I'm Canadian. I say "out and about" pretty well and I just got back finally from a visit to see my son and sister after two years. So it was hard to travel—I always could but hard to give two weeks of quarantine, so it's nice to be able to visit again. And I am a nurse by background, a critical care nurse, and I started at Allina Health in 2013 after being the chief nursing officer at Fairview Ridges in Burnsville and then at St. Joe's in St. Paul, and I was the president at Unity Hospital in Fridley for four years and then came here in June of 2019. So I'm glad to be here. Let's see... podium PC, right? Just have a little PowerPoint that just helps me more than anything. I'd love to talk to you today about what was changing before the pandemic, what healthcare transformation means, what we're calling our "whole way to better." I'd love then to introduce some of our caregivers at Regina and across Allina and to show how we've been caring for our communities through Allina Health through this pandemic. And I know you've been hearing all the incredible stories of caring that those dedicated frontline caregivers—physicians and nurses and respiratory therapists and others—have been giving not only for COVID but all of the other illnesses that everybody always has, and so we are grateful for that. And then I'll talk a little bit about our role in the response and also accelerating the innovation and change that we learned. So let's see... so many of you may know or heard of Penny Wheeler on the left. She is our president and CEO of Allina Health and Penny has spoken for many, many years about the concept of how there's so many inefficiencies in healthcare and she's not alone, is she? We hear about that from many places, but even before COVID started, we knew that we had gross inequities in the types of care that was delivered to whom. We knew that some people got great care, we knew that other people got adequate care, and we know that some people get no care at all given the way our healthcare system is working. And that's not good for anybody or any country, and certainly not good for those in Hastings and our communities. We've shown all over the United States about fragmented healthcare systems, and we learned from a few states like Oregon and Massachusetts and California that we need to innovate faster than we have been, and boy did we learn how to innovate fast in COVID. What we see for our patients is confusion. How many of you have gone to the emergency room or to your doctors and not be able to figure out what the next steps are in your care or where to receive those? In honesty, it should be fairly obvious that you have a coordinator of your care and that someone is going to lead you through the care journey that you're on. We are kind of good at that about certain things; orthopedic surgery might be one of those. If you need a knee replacement, we know how to lead you through the boot camp pre-op, how to get you through your surgery, and then post-op. Cancer care is pretty well defined too. We've been able to decrease the fragmented experience in some of those areas. But we've also got a situation of those things being less affordable. I'm sure we've all been surprised at a bill at how much it costs to receive healthcare and are grateful for when we have insurance that covers most or all of that, but can you imagine being someone who doesn't have any insurance receiving that bill and trying to understand how are they going to continue on with their lives? And I don't need to tell you that the number one cause of bankruptcy for a cancer patient is the cost of their care, and that feels in 2021 completely unacceptable. It is to me, I'm sure it is to you, and it absolutely is to Allina Health. So we've been working on something while our frontline caregivers have been giving their all over and over again across our system and across the state. We have been working hard for the rest of our company to figure out what will healthcare look like. How are we going to meet these needs around transformation? And we believe that we need a healthcare system that's more accessible, equitable, and affordable, and more holistic. So it takes in something we call "whole person care." So this is a journey we're calling the whole way to better. We're launching a really ambitious transformational journey this year to change healthcare from the status quo that we see today on many, many fronts. From new ways to deliver care and fund care, meeting people where they are, which we experienced—how many of you have had a virtual visit with your physician over this last year? That wasn't really something we did a year and a half ago. Providing seamless connected care like we do for cancer and other types of complex diagnoses—we would like to be able to provide seamless connected care for everyone who enters into our system, and then making care more equitable and inclusive. And we certainly learned during COVID that we have inequities in who wants to be vaccinated, who gets vaccinated, who's offered types of care, who's eligible, and for the type of care that we might need. And none of that sounds right, so it's time for a change. Some people may look a little familiar for you in here or if you've been in our hospital. This is the way we've been caring for our community: the emergency care we deliver through our emergency room that sees 14,000 visits every year; our urgent care up and clinics up at Frontage Road and Nininger Road are seeing many, many patients every day helping to improve the care in our community; our guest services and our volunteers and auxiliary program help to ensure that we've got folks around who can help people find their way and provide a loving way at which we can deliver care, which is very important to us. Vaccinations and high-end medical imaging are important to us. And in the last seven years since Regina was acquired by Allina, we've invested almost 60 million dollars in the campus and we invite you anytime to—well, when we can—to come and see what's happened at the hospital if you haven't been recently because it's a pretty spanking nice looking place and we're very proud of it. And then the community service that we give: we do school drives, we do special programming at the schools, we work alongside our counselors in the high schools around mental health and addiction resources, and our cancer care program is second to none and allows you to have access to those specialists and diagnoses like malignant melanoma and other rare cancers through our work at Abbott and the Virginia Piper Cancer Center. And so we're very proud of how we've been able to care for our community today, but there's a lot more we can do with a lot more efficiency as we work through this together as a system. And there are caregivers—and you'll see a few familiar faces in there from Regina—we asked a number of our teams to come together to show you how much they care about you as well and they are our heart of the care that we deliver, and you are the heart that brings care to our communities and we appreciate all that we've been able to do. And one of the things that was remarkable for us was how on almost every Friday afternoon, food was delivered from a various restaurant or a family. We had many times where we had gift boxes and gift bags delivered from members of the community to the hospital in the nursing home, and we were certainly grateful for that. Well, for COVID it's kind of astonishing. I am served with Allina Health for the state of Minnesota on something called the Critical Care Coordination Center or the C4. Have you heard about that? The C4 is a remarkable thing we put together in May of 2020. We got together with the Governor and the Commissioner of Health and four very special people, and I was fortunate to be included in that, who were able to dream up this Critical Care Coordination Center. And in 2020—actually last week—we've placed critical care patients all across the state to an ICU bed and we've placed almost 1,200 patients who couldn't find a bed in their own hospital to another bed in another hospital within the state. Sometimes patients had to move from Hastings all the way to Duluth, sometimes they had to go to Bemidji. Most of the time we were able to utilize the system resources at Allina, but every health system and every health site in the state of Minnesota has used the C4 to manage the surge in a way that we're very proud of. At Allina, we cared for 4,200 patients with COVID. They were either treated in our home hospital care, in our clinics, or in our hospitals. We administered so far over 550,000 COVID tests just from Allina, so imagine what all of the other systems have done as well. And 11,000 patients received inpatient care in our hospitals at Allina Health. At Regina Hospital in Hastings and the Nininger clinic, we've tested over 1,200 patients or treated them on an outpatient basis for COVID-19. At the hospital, we delivered 22,000 COVID tests; 185—and climbing everyday—patients received inpatient care at Regina, and those were the patients who were able to stay in our community receiving the care that they needed. And we upped our game around the type of care that we deliver too. We have a telehealth program today with the Abbott intensivist that allows us to keep sicker patients than we've ever kept before and innovation that is new during COVID. And then just at the hospital, we delivered 2,300 COVID vaccines. Many of those were to our staff, of course, and to our volunteers and auxiliary, but we also reached out into the community to dental offices and physiotherapy spaces and other healthcare professionals to deliver vaccines during that period of time. So not only was it busy just caring for patients, it was busy caring for our community and we're proud of how we've been able to serve all of you and everyone who comes to the hospital. COVID was something that transformed incredibly how we delivered care, but it's not over yet. This is something I see every day as part of my work with the C4. This is actually from August 30th, but the numbers aren't much different today. The top line that's baby blue on the top says 589, but today we have 631 COVID positive patients in our hospitals in Minnesota. And we monitor this every day through a daily C4 call with our member hospitals and we are moving patients still today around our state because there aren't enough beds and enough staff to care for our patients. It's a trifecta happening right now of hospitalizations for COVID. We're seeing a surge of the Delta virus, we're seeing a number of unvaccinated patients who are entering our system that weren't entering before. The Delta virus is much more transmissible and difficult; it's also more difficult to treat for some folks who get very sick with this and you're reading about that every day. But we also have a staffing problem all across healthcare in the state. Have you heard of the "Great Resignation" of 2021? You might have been experiencing it in your workplaces where you are, and we are no different in healthcare. Only what's different for us is our doctors and nurses and respiratory therapists and lab technicians and PCTs and everyone who cares for patients—nutrition workers—we're kind of sick of it. We're kind of tired of dealing with this every single day, and healthcare providers across the nation are leaving at a faster rate than anybody else in this Great Resignation. They're changing jobs to get away from the front line, they're decreasing their full-time equivalents or FTEs, and they're going to other types of work where it is much less stressful. And so we are experiencing that same thing at Regina and we're experiencing it at Allina Health. On any given day at Regina right now, we have about 40 percent of our staff our traveler agency staff, and we are no different than anybody else. So there won't be as many familiar faces if you do come and see us and have to receive care. However, they're extraordinary healthcare providers who are from various parts of the country and have cared for specialized patients all over the nation, so we're grateful for them. We've intentionally made a big difference in how we're caring. We act much more like a system. We have an access center at Allina now for our patients that come into Regina who need a bed at one of our metro hospitals for a specialty or an ICU bed. We have one number to call and we have a team of people down at Abbott who actually help us to place all those patients across the system. We have developed COVID-19 treatments and specialists who also work here at Regina through telehealth or sometimes many of them can come out and see patients. Boy, did we have to manage supply chain. Did any of you and your businesses too have to work through the shortages in PPE and equipment? We worked tirelessly with hundreds of different vendors to get N95 masks and PAPRs for our staff to wear, and then we innovated in COVID-19 testing and in vaccination delivery, and those are all things we learned so much from that we never want that learning to go away. We innovated programs to meet healthcare needs like we've never done before. From the ground up, we developed home hospital care, meaning we can care for many, many patients now every day in their home that we used to admit to our beds. And every day we have about 70 patients across Allina that are being cared for by a team who uses biometrics and the internet and special visits by doctors and nurses to patients' homes to care for them in their home when they would have been hospitalized a year ago. We do telehealth—I was telling you about tele-intensivists—we have tele-NICU now, we have tele-hospitalists, we have tele-cardiology, we have tele-lung, we have all the specialists that we never were able to have here for our inpatient care available by telehealth. You've known probably about our tele-stroke program that's quite famous, but we now have it for all sorts of things. But one of the things that I think was most innovative was virtual care. I was fortunate to serve as the Allina incident commander from March until June of 2020 where I watched innovation occur every single day. In February of 2020, guess how many virtual visits we did across Allina? It's almost even hard to guess because it was only 20. In the month of February, we did 20 virtual visits. Guess how many we did in June? 16,000. From February to June, we innovated like we never thought possible. That would have taken 20 years to happen without COVID. It also would have taken all of you 20 years to accept it—that yeah, this is how we actually can receive care. And I had a virtual visit about something that was easy for my doctor to do over the internet from my office with my doctor in Woodbury. That is incredible. I didn't have to leave my work; I was able to stay productive the whole time. And that's what we've been experiencing all across Allina. 90 percent of our mental healthcare now occurs virtually. We do have lots of visits that come in as well for other things, but our initial mental health visits are all done virtually and it has allowed access to hundreds of more patients when they're not having to wait for bricks and mortar to come in. So what all this means is is that we are really looking across Allina at how can we maintain those things? How can we make sure that we always have enough PPE going forward so we're never caught like that again? How do we keep virtual care and everyday clinics going? We now have everyday urgent care online where you can speak to an urgent care provider immediately as soon as you need it rather than going into bricks and mortar again into an urgent care. We also have "On My Way" emergency care so that you can go online and let us know you're coming to Regina Hospital and you'll be put into our queue and we'll be expecting you when you arrive. So there are many new things that are great for you just as they are for us, and we want to make sure that we don't lose any of those and expand upon them as well. So that leads kind of to what does the future look like? And so we are right now working with our various board members and the Allina board and our physicians to determine what will we continue doing in Hastings and at Regina, what will we expand here in terms of programming—and there's lots of things we're thinking about around mental healthcare and emergency care—and then how can we continue to serve our communities also by real outreach into the community? And how can we work closely with our Hastings EMS? How can we work with Prescott and Cottage Grove as well? But one of the things I really need to ask you for is your support because patients are choosing to go other places than our hospital for their care. And I could tell you stories every day that we're saving lives. I could tell you that we have access to specialists like we haven't before. We're adding a new ear, nose, and throat physician who starts next week with his PA, Dr. McHale. We have a new orthopedic surgeon who's going to work alongside Dr. Pera and we're excited to see that happen. We have a new GI physician who's coming starting in October. And we are just so excited to think about all of the opportunities to bring patients, but what we need are patients. So if you have the opportunity to talk to your friends and neighbors about the care that we deliver, about the innovations Allina has done, about all the care we gave to our community during the COVID experience, we'd really appreciate that because we need your help. We need to make sure that Regina stays viable and important to the community because I think all of you would agree that it's very nice to have an emergency department to come to that's just down the street versus having to travel all the way into Woodbury. So thank you for your time. [21:16] Mary Fasbender (Mayor): Thank you, and we do appreciate having a hospital within our community. I know I do—I can say I've never had to use it but I feel very fortunate—but I do hear many comments that people are very fortunate to have. So thank you for the update. Keep going and you know, pivoting is the word. [21:56] Jenna Fox (Councilmember): Thank you, Your Honor. Thank you, Helen, for your presentation. It's very interesting to hear and I'm thankful for telehealth. Yeah, that was perfect, thank you for being a part of that innovation. I had a question about if you could help shed a little light on where we are today with the Delta variant. As you were saying, you are experiencing all sorts of staffing shortages and there's, you know, the surge is occurring. And so later in our agenda we have an item for further conversation and it has to deal with masking. And so our city administrator provided in the memo where we're at with the rate per 100,000 population, and he has here that here in Dakota County for this last week we're at 142.65 per 100,000 population. And so that's really alarming, and I had been hearing reports that hospitals are full, and so people are getting in car accidents and they're not able to go to the first hospital, that they're being transferred around where they're trying to find beds and such already. And so what does that mean, that 142 per 100,000 population? Is that just about where we were last year at this time before things started to take off? [23:32] Helen Strike: Dang, I wish I'd looked that up. We didn't actually use that stat last time earlier in the pandemic last year, but it is fairly high in terms of new cases. Our hospitalizations remain fairly low and according to Dakota County—and I just read today that we have one of the highest top five vaccination rates in the state and so we should be proud of all of that. I can absolutely with certainty tell you at Allina Health that 94 percent of the patients who are hospitalized and those that are intensive care units are unvaccinated. 94 percent. Yes. Wow. And so this is—I know you don't need to hear one more person tell you to get a vaccine, but honestly, our hospitals are suffering again and this is what is so difficult for our caregivers who care about the vaccinations and are seeing the difference vaccines are making. 95 percent of residents in Minnesota over the age of 65 are vaccinated and nobody's dropped dead, nobody's had pulmonary embolisms, nobody's had giant amounts of complications in that huge number of Minnesotans who've been vaccinated with the additional comorbidities they may have for those of us aging on. So it's a very, very safe vaccine and we are not going to nip this thing unless we are able to get more and even more Dakota County residents vaccinated. It's important. So we'd like to see that 142 point something or rather be zero. And the Delta virus is four times as transmissible as the Alpha virus was a year ago, so it's very hard to compare apples to apples because COVID has changed. COVID is very different than it was just six months ago even. Remember India and hearing all of that about India? That was the birthplace of the Delta virus. And all of those things that we saw and heard of every day for our family and friends—all of us have family and friends who are from India or live in India who were affected by the Delta virus and it's our high vaccination rate that's keeping things somewhat at bay here in Minnesota, but we're seeing in states with very low vaccination rates abysmal circumstances. [25:51] Jenna Fox (Councilmember): And so my follow-up question is that the county public health department was recommending that people be wearing masks regardless at this point if you're indoors. And so, is that what you would recommend as well from your professional opinion? [26:15] Helen Strike: At the hospital in clinics, we haven't stopped wearing masks. You might have noticed that when you come in the door you have to put a mask on. We've been wearing masks this entire time. I think we started in April last year wearing masks in the hospital. We've never quit, and we expect our visitors and physicians and patients to wear masks too when they're with others. We haven't seen outbreaks—not one at Regina amongst our staff at a rate that would mean we had to close services or close departments. There's something in that, right? Because we're wearing masks all the time. We also watch very carefully our social distancing, so our break rooms where people eat have to be closely monitored to make sure everybody's still six feet apart. And we were virtual meetings until like yours last month, and we may actually go back to virtual meetings again for the end of this month going forward because the Delta virus is just so darn transmissible. And it's the worst part about this whole thing; it is a little bit like an alien thing because it's invisible and some people get very sick and some people get a sniffle. If you're one of those with a sniffle, you come in contact with somebody who has some weakness or comorbidities, they get very, very sick and end up in ICU. You're reading those stories every day across the United States and it's not something to take for granted. This is our own behavior is what really will help us to get through this next set. We're hoping we can stay at 600 patients in hospitals because right now Florida has 23,000 hospitalizations. I don't know how they're doing that. Poor Louisiana had to evacuate many, many patients out of their New Orleans and surrounding hospitals with COVID. They are one of the highest COVID states. Can you imagine the EMS and air ambulance people who had to move COVID patients and the risks that those folks were under just moving someone who had such a high viral load when they were sick? So stories can go on. I can hopefully maybe go away from here having had one or two of you hear something different about the "why" about why to wear a mask and why to get vaccinated. [28:34] Jenna Fox (Councilmember): Thank you. Now I'm feeling very guilty for not having a mask on. [28:36] Helen Strike: Look at all the stuff you've got though and nobody's standing right there, so you're okay. [28:39] Dave Pemble (Councilmember): Thank you, Honor. Helen, thanks for coming out and thanks for the data. And the one thing that I heard you say right at the beginning was innovation, how Allina is doing it, but also I agree the hospital here has made a major investment. How can we as a community help Allina? You mentioned "shop here" meeting our students—we do that to our stores, but we should try to keep our care here also. Yes, and I think we're going to create conversation around the community, but how about staffing? To hear 40 percent traveling nurses is alarming. Is there something you can give back to us? It's us versus United or River Falls... what makes them choose Hastings and how do we help that? If our community is innovators, is that going to attract the next future staff person for you? [29:40] Helen Strike: That's a great question. We have a town hall coming up so I'll ask, but immediately I can say affordable housing. Our new nurses and PCTs and others are finding it difficult to move into Hastings. I'll tell you, I don't live here because we had no available housing when I moved here two years ago. You might remember there was—and again today—as soon as one thing goes for sale, it's gone. And the new housing that is coming is fantastic, but it's at a price point that is hard for new families and their children. We are a home, we're a farm team to many of the metro hospitals and we appreciate it because we have the right level of care, and the same ED doctors that work at United work here at Regina. But it is hard for us when it means that they can't do some of the things like live in the community at which they work, which is one of our favorite things to do. So that's my first thought. [30:53] Dave Pemble (Councilmember): Thank you, and my follow-up is I don't want to be that farm team. I want to find a way that's going to make people say "this is where I work, where I live." So if we can help anyway—I get housing is one of them. I think we're on a plan to make some lifecycle housing changes in the community, but I just want to make sure that we're going to be out in front of the next staff for you to say, "Hey, they really made some big investments down in that community, it's not only the place you work but the place it's in." Maybe we should choose Hastings. [31:34] Helen Strike: Thank you. I sit on the Hastings Chamber board and I get to hear all the wonderful things that's happening in the new businesses and I've been really impressed with the loyalty and the new businesses coming into the area. We have been around for 67 years and so we would like to stay for 67 more, and this transformation that we're working on will 100 percent maintain care in the community and we are hopeful that it will ensure that we have sustainable long-term care. Thank you. [31:58] Mary Fasbender (Mayor): Thank you for all your time, I really appreciate that. All right council, any corrections to the minutes from the meeting from August 16th? Seeing none, they are approved. Tonight we have public comments from the audience. For live comments, attendees may either raise their hand in person or use the raised hand feature in Zoom. I also would recommend that the public comment period is not intended for an extended dialogue. Is there anyone in the chambers that would like to speak at this time? May step forward, state your name and address please. [33:21] Angela Zeien: Hello, my name is Angela Zeien. I live at 1772 Delridge Court. I'd like to address the council with my concerns over Heritage Ridge. When the development first came to your approval, there were concerns brought to your attention in regards to the quarry. At that time, the quarry concerns were the blasts. Thank you, Jenna, for making sure you guys understood that that's a concern of ours. Now we are looking at the third plat approval for Creative Homes. It sounds like there wasn't a clear understanding on the methodology being used to develop this land. We heard that annoying jackhammer noise for quite some time, but now what we are feeling is a sensation three to four times daily—complete blast like you're in an earthquake. I'd love to invite any of you guys over for any time of the day to feel what we feel. It's been much more nerve-wracking and frustrating than any of you sitting there can imagine. Today I was walking my dog and the horn blasted three times. My dog goes on a complete anxiety attack, starts bolting towards our house in fear, and we hear the blast. I could hear it all the way at Northridge and Wyndham. We formed a small group on Facebook and within our group of neighbors, we all agree that they knew they were going to do some damage to our properties. Miraculously Thursday and Friday we got claim numbers on some of our claims, but what about the other people? The bottom line is I feel we can't move forward without acknowledging us and giving us homeowners some kind of reassurance that you have our back when it comes to these claims. We feel they should find other ways to get this job done. The seismic monitors that are set in two people's basements are reading below the normal limits, but what is normal when it's three blasts a day times nine plus weeks? What data do we have on the long-term effects to our homes? I ask that you get some answers on these questions before approving the third plat. Thank you. [37:45] Mary Fasbender (Mayor): Thank you, Angela. Is there anyone else? [37:57] Ben Spader: My name is Ben Spader, I'm at 1784 Delridge Court. I'm also on the Parks and Rec Commission. I feel naked without a mask after that, but there was eight floral masks in the car and I couldn't do it. Basically I just wanted to bring up my concerns about the structure of our investment. Most of the houses in there range from half a million to three quarters of a million dollars and so I'm a little concerned about the developer maybe taking a little shortcut at the expense of our livelihoods. Our foundations are largely covered by drywall—most all of our basements are finished so you can't actually look at the concrete foundations. I can tell you our foundations aren't going to drop right after this blasting; they're going to drop years down the road. They drill about 25 to 30 holes from eight feet deep down to I think even up to 15 or 20 feet deep and then they put dynamite in each one. It's throwing rocks way high, way out and that's in bedrock no more than 200 feet from my foundation. It's much different than the quarry explosions which are about a half a mile away; this is 200 feet away. We're nine weeks in and it's just really concerning for us. So thank you so much for your time. [41:40] Mary Fasbender (Mayor): Thank you for your comments. Anyone else? Okay, Council, any items to be considered for the consent agenda? [42:18] Jenna Fox (Councilmember): Your Honor, I am gonna pull items four, five, eight, and sixteen from the consent agenda. I will be abstaining from them and I'd like to vote on them separately just to avoid any perceived conflict with a business owner, and with that I'll move the consent agenda. [42:32] Mary Fasbender (Mayor): I'll need a second for the consent agenda other than four, five, eight, and sixteen. [42:36] Trevor Lund (Councilmember): Second. [42:38] Mary Fasbender (Mayor): Any discussion? All those in favor signify by saying "aye." Opposed? The consent agenda is passed. Then we will go right to 4, 5, 8, and 16 with Councilmember Fox abstaining. I would like a motion to accept those four items. [43:10] Lisa Leifeld (Councilmember): So moved. [43:11] Trevor Lund (Councilmember): Second. [43:18] Mary Fasbender (Mayor): All those in favor? Those have been passed as well. Under tonight under Community Development we have with us John Hinzman. John, we are going to talk about a resolution for the final plat for Heritage Ridge third edition. [43:18] John Hinzman (Community Development Director): Thank you, Mayor, City Council members. Tonight we've got two actions for you. One is the final plat for the third edition, which would create another 40 lots. The second action is to authorize signature of a site grading agreement. This is authorization to begin limited grading activities. This doesn't preclude the need for a full development agreement, but this would allow for the developer to continue grading activities. Planning Commission did review this on August 30th, voting 4-0 to recommend approval. During that meeting, we did have four residents living east of General Sieben Drive speak to the question of rock blasting. If you have any further questions I can stand for them. The developer from TC Landmark, Mark Ginther, is also present tonight. [45:36] Jenna Fox (Councilmember): Thank you, Honor. John, have you had the ability to have those conversations with the developer to know if there are other means of loosening the soil other than the dynamite blasts which seem rather extreme at this point? [45:51] John Hinzman: From what I understand, there's really two ways that you could do it. One would be blasting, which is more disruptive but of a shorter duration. The other would be jackhammering, which would take a much longer period of time and would be more continuous as you go through it for rock removal. [46:21] Jenna Fox (Councilmember): My follow-up question then is, what is the difference with the vibration levels? Angela had said that the jackhammering is very noisy, but is the seismic activity generated from the jackhammering less detrimental to the neighbors than the dynamiting? [46:58] John Hinzman: I'm probably speaking outside of my expertise here. From what I've heard from engineers, blasting is going to be more acute—you're going to have a larger amount of power in a shorter duration. With jackhammering, it's not going to be as acute, it's going to be spread out over a longer period of time. [47:53] Jenna Fox (Councilmember): Is it my understanding that the city engineer, Cody Mathisen, had made some kind of suggestion for modification of the lowering of the power of the dynamite? [48:15] John Hinzman: I believe there were some discussions on that relating to the power of the charges and the depth of the charges. Mr. Ginther can speak better to that. [48:42] Jenna Fox (Councilmember): Is it within our purview to be able to dictate the means of extracting the rock? It just doesn't seem ethical to allow this development to continue with an additional 40 lots. Angela showed me pictures that looked like a wall had actually buckled. I can't imagine what another—am I right, have there been 40 already? How many lots still need to be dynamited? [50:13] John Hinzman: Fourth edition here is in blue, that's 40 lots. There's been another 40 lots in the first and second edition that have been plated. Last phase of the development is up here, that's 36 I believe altogether. From what I understand from the developer is that the blasting activities would be done for the entire development during this period of time which would commence over the next couple of weeks and then end. As we move into the third and fourth edition construction next year, that rock blasting would not be utilized in those areas. [51:46] Jenna Fox (Councilmember): What method is used for the monitoring of the blast? I hear there's some sort of a device. Who is responsible for that? [52:32] John Hinzman: There are seismic monitors that are placed on the site and in a couple of homes that are adjacent to the site. The ones on the site are required as part of our permitting to monitor that activity. The ones that are outside the site were done at our suggestion. Those monitors are reviewed and the data is signed off by a professional engineer. [54:05] Jenna Fox (Councilmember): Does that individual work for the builder or the city? [54:12] John Hinzman: They are an independent firm. [54:51] Mark Ginther (TC Landmark): Mark Ginther with TC Land. I'm as frustrated as the residents are. This was not at all expected. All our soil borings completely missed the rock. We did find the rock and just this isolated area. Basically Ridgepoint Court is where most of the rock was found. The two options were either dynamite it or hammer away, and we'd be hammering away all summer long out there. I think one more day of utilities left, and that's tomorrow. For the remaining lots, we can hammer away at those—it's going to be about three or four weeks—or if we blast it's going to be about three days. I'm open to suggestions. I'm okay if you even put a condition on the approval of the final plat on phase three that we don't allow blasting. [58:36] Dave Pemble (Councilmember): Have you looked at a redesign? [58:45] Mark Ginther: We looked at it multiple times and it really wasn't—with the way the water flows and the utility everything—it was just a tough one. [59:23] Dave Pemble (Councilmember): I would actually probably go with that motion that we don't use blasting for the future if you run into it. I'm worried that as we continue on, this is going to come back up again. I would make a motion, Your Honor, just to approve the third plat with the stipulation that blasting is not used moving forward. [1:00:28] Jenna Fox (Councilmember): Your Honor, one additional question. It was brought forward to me that some of these lots are actually being sold as water properties. Are there ponds that are being put on the lots? [1:01:16] Mark Ginther: Creative Homes is the builder, they're the ones selling the houses. There are ponds; Outlot A will have water in that pond. They are storm water ponds. [1:02:04] Mary Fasbender (Mayor): Council, a motion is on the table. All those in favor? [Ayes heard]. The motion prevails. [1:02:50] Mary Fasbender (Mayor): Can we have another motion for the final plat site grading agreement for Heritage Ridge 3? [1:03:10] Trevor Lund (Councilmember): So moved. [1:03:12] Jenna Fox (Councilmember): Second. [1:03:15] Mary Fasbender (Mayor): All those in favor? [Ayes heard]. That motion prevails too. The next item will be under Administration: the City Welcome Signs. Councilmember Fox, I will turn it over to you. [1:03:36] Jenna Fox (Councilmember): Thank you, Your Honor. Since the last time we talked, the sign on Highway 61 at 316 has been completely removed and the one on 55 is still standing. All of the long grasses and weeds that had grown around it have been removed, so it looks considerably better than it had at the beginning of August. I had asked for council consideration for the removal of those signs. Staff intends to replace the one that's on Highway 55 and so Dan, I'll let you take it from here. [1:05:12] Dan Wietecha (City Administrator): Thank you. Following the rebranding effort, we replaced the sign coming in on the north end. Shortly thereafter, we placed a new sign south on 316. The existing sign at 316 and 61 had some political issues around it and staff were directed not to remove it previously. With the recent construction, we told staff go ahead and take that down. The other sign by the library on 55—the long-term plan is to place a similar monument sign near Jacob. That has not been a priority in our budget or engineering work to look at acquiring property because we don't go out that far at this point. Nininger Township would have a say on that sighting since it's located in the township currently. [1:09:03] Jenna Fox (Councilmember): Finance committee had conversations and the public works staff echoed they currently don't have any budget set aside for replacing the sign on Highway 55. The sign as it is needs to be addressed in my opinion. [1:12:33] Lisa Leifeld (Councilmember): Can I clarify what it would cost to remove it? [1:12:47] Dan Wietecha: The removal is pretty minimal. [1:13:33] Angie Haus (Councilmember): I would certainly be in favor of removing this sign and putting a new sign in the community. If we can slot this into the work by the end of fall, I think that would be appropriate. [1:14:19] Dave Pemble (Councilmember): I personally think it would be a high priority. I think it's important to be a welcoming community and to have a beautiful monumental sign instead of a wooden aged sign. [1:15:33] Trevor Lund (Councilmember): I don't want to move it twice. If we're going to make that investment, let's find the permanent place that's going to be there for 20 years at least. [1:16:53] Dan Wietecha: I just want to point out that we just approved the strategic initiatives. This might fit into broad categories, but I hope going forward the council will have a commitment to working with the plan rather than second-guessing it repeatedly. [1:18:26] Jenna Fox (Councilmember): I respect what Dan is trying to say, however, this has been an issue before the council for quite a considerable amount of time. I'll make a motion to remove the sign and then staff can come up with a plan later on on how to replace it. [1:21:20] Dave Pemble (Councilmember): Second. [1:21:32] Trevor Lund (Councilmember): To the City Administrator's point, there's also the opportunity for future topics for consideration—the "parking lot." [1:22:17] Mary Fasbender (Mayor): Motion is on the floor. All those in favor of removal of the sign? [Ayes heard]. That motion prevails. Budget amendment—Dan. [1:22:17] Dan Wietecha: We have two items. One is $20,000 for re-striping at Pine and 55—that's coming in about $3,200 higher than the estimate. The other much more significant budget amendment is a fire study. We included $20,000, but the two quotes we got back are both just under $60,000. I believe it's important to continue with the study. We would anticipate bringing it to the public safety committee. [1:25:26] Jenna Fox (Councilmember): I'll make a motion to approve the staff requests for these two budget amendments. [1:26:59] Dave Pemble (Councilmember): Second. I agree something needs to be done, but three times the expected cost... it'd be good to just know that we've got a fairly high level of confidence that it's accurate. [1:28:22] Mary Fasbender (Mayor): What was the year that the last fire study was completed? [1:28:40] Dan Wietecha: I'd have to look up to be certain, but I think it was around 2014. [1:31:33] Mary Fasbender (Mayor): There is a motion on the table. All those in favor? [Ayes heard]. That motion prevails. Thank you. So COVID-19 and the Delta variant—this item was requested by Councilmember Fox. [1:31:33] Jenna Fox (Councilmember): Thank you, Your Honor. Dakota County is at 142 per 100,000 population. Regina administrator Helen Strike indicated that we should be requiring folks to wear masks within the city buildings. Dakota County mandated that both staff and visitors within their buildings must wear masks. I support that we follow those guidelines that the county has put forward. [1:36:46] Trevor Lund (Councilmember): My biggest question is how do we enforce it? I don't think staff should have to be the enforcers of that. [1:38:19] Angie Haus (Councilmember): In my day job, we have this at work. As a staff, I don't think they'd even have to mention it unless it's asked. I would completely be on board with it being a requirement with city staff within buildings. [1:40:41] Trevor Lund (Councilmember): I think staff knows best what their spaces are like. If they're moving throughout a city facility, they should wear their mask. [1:41:26] Jenna Fox (Councilmember): I think that you're doing the staff a favor by making it required to begin with. [1:43:45] Tim Lawrence (Councilmember): I'm just curious... is there some sense of "don't put that on me as an enforcement of policy" from staff? [1:44:30] Dan Wietecha: In the last couple of weeks, that has not been a discussion with the management team. [1:47:13] Dan Wietecha: Currently, the directive to employees is that when you are unable to consistently maintain social distancing, you're required to mask. Right now, those employees are not required to mask under the direction I've given unless they leave their area. [1:51:09] Lisa Leifeld (Councilmember): I am fully vaccinated, I do choose to wear a mask. I've got a five-month-old grandson at home who can't get vaccinated. I would like to make a motion that we require all city staff to wear masks while in our city buildings and highly encourage our guests to wear them as well. [1:55:08] Jenna Fox (Councilmember): Second. [1:55:54] Dave Pemble (Councilmember): The current motion is too vague for me. Who's going to be the gatekeeper? [1:57:26] Trevor Lund (Councilmember): It kind of feels like we're making a motion that is accomplishing what's already happening today. I'm gonna withdraw my second. [2:01:15] Lisa Leifeld (Councilmember): I'd like to withdraw my motion. [2:01:24] Mary Fasbender (Mayor): Is there further discussion about the public part? [2:03:44] Jenna Fox (Councilmember): I'll make a motion to require that the public be required when entering a city-owned facility that they be required to wear a mask until we have gone back down to a substantial level. [2:08:03] Trevor Lund (Councilmember): I just want to know who's going to enforce it. I support what Councilmember Fox was saying, but I just do not want to put our staff in that area. [2:09:38] Tim Lawrence (Councilmember): I feel like we should be deciding things in a meeting, not creating the research. My recommendation is to table it. [2:17:46] Jenna Fox (Councilmember): I'll withdraw my motion to give staff the opportunity to make a better recommendation. [2:18:32] Mary Fasbender (Mayor): Resolution to approve preliminary 2022 city property tax levy. Dan. [2:18:32] Dan Wietecha: The preliminary levy figure is 16,294,085 dollars. It sets the Truth in Taxation hearing for our December 6 city council meeting. [2:20:26] Mary Fasbender (Mayor): I accept a motion to approve. [2:20:30] Dave Pemble (Councilmember): So moved. [2:20:31] Jenna Fox (Councilmember): Second. [Motion passes]. [2:21:13] Mary Fasbender (Mayor): Resolution for the proposed 2022 HEDRA special tax levy. [2:22:15] Trevor Lund (Councilmember): I make a motion to approve resolution 9-9-21. [2:22:20] Dave Pemble (Councilmember): Second. [Motion passes]. [2:22:30] Mary Fasbender (Mayor): Council, do you have any announcements? [2:22:30] Trevor Lund (Councilmember): As you know, I chair the Great River Rail Commission. We were awarded 10 million dollars. Dakota County has chosen to leave that commission, and I'll forward the letter to everyone. [2:24:01] Mary Fasbender (Mayor): Happy birthday last week to Councilmember Fox. We have a dedication of the mural "Our Growing Diversity" on Thursday. The Fire Relief Association Booyah is Saturday. Saturday is also the 20th anniversary of 9/11. Summer programs at Levee Park on Tuesday. Wednesday morning there is a Planning Committee meeting. Thursday, HEDRA has a meeting. Monday the 13th is Planning Commission. Monday the 20th we have a Council workshop at 5:30. Motion to adjourn? [2:26:00] Trevor Lund (Councilmember): So moved. [2:26:02] Jenna Fox (Councilmember): Second. [2:26:05] Mary Fasbender (Mayor): Meeting adjourned. Thank you.